[Antoine Fourrière]

There is little doubt in my mind that you must open the weak twos in a major and the weak two-suiters with at least one major (I mean five-five or better).

But two diamonds is not very good for constructive purposes.

Besides, if you play Wilkosz, when responder has two hearts and four spades, he has to bid two spades and the bidding may well stop there when you were cold for four spades.

And if you play the multi,
2D 2S
3H (or an equivalent)
cries out that the opponents have a good fit in spades.

So, why not use two diamonds for the game forces (the unbalanced game forces, if you choose to open the big balanced hands with one club), and report all those openings in an opening of two clubs?

Over 2C,
2D: asks for the major, either constructive or afraid of a major-minor two-suiter.
2H: please pass only with a weak two in hearts, but bid your second suit if you have a weak two-suiter with hearts. So rebid 2S with a spade one-suiter or a two-suiter with spades.
2S: please pass only with a weak two in spades, but bid your second suit if you have a weak two-suiter with spades. So rebid 3H with a heart one-suiter or a two-suiter with hearts. Anyway, I support hearts.
2N: Constructive with my own hearts. (After 2C 2D? 2H, 2S is the relay and 2N is constructive with spades.)
3C, 3D: non-forcing
3H: pass or correct. Mandatory with any 4333 which is not worth a game invitation. Of course correct with hearts and spades because I may have three hearts and five spades.
3S: pass or correct. Of course correct with hearts and spades, because I have three spades and at least four hearts.
4H: pass or correct. Toss a coin with hearts and spades.

Once your partner has some degree of fit, he is not in a big quandary : you have hearts or spades, so it's basically a two-way situation. (If he hasn't three cards in both majors, the above structure gives a decent cop-out.)

But your opponents are in a seven-way nightmare.

If LHO bids 3N, which he should do as often as he can, although these two-suiters are ominous for notrump purposes, pass by opener strongly suggests hearts, double shows spades and 4H shows both majors.

After, say 2C (pass) 2H (3D), double should show spades and pass deny them.

Comments?

[hrothgar]

First comment:

Many players follow precisely the strategy that you suggest and use 2C as a weak opening bid with both majors. [In many cases they multiplex a couple additional hand types into this opening. For example, playing Ice Relay,

2C = Weak with 5+ Spades and 4+ Hearts OR
Weak with 6 Diamonds or
23-24 balanced

Second: I have a general theory about two suited methods. Suppose that you are designing a bid that shows a two suited hand. Furthermore, assume that this bid shows a tightly defined range. [For example an Ekrens type 2D opening shows a single continuous range, however, a good/bad Michaels cue bid does not]

I argue that bids that show a single continuous range should either be opened in one of the anchor suits OR two steps below an anchor suit. However, opening directly in an anchor rarely makes sense.

Consider the following example: Many people use a 2NT opening to show 5+ Clubs, 5+ Diamonds, and ~ 8 - 11 HCP. [This opening is actually part of Paul Marston's preferred MOSCITO variant]. I argue that it is silly to use 2NT show this hand type, rather you should either open it with 3C or 2S. The main reason for this is that the 2NT opening wastes bidding space.

If I open 2NT to show both minors, then I can't bid 3C as an asking bid. It needs to be "to play". Accordingly, if I want to give up on the asking bid, then I might as well open 3C to begin with and maximize the pressure on the opponents. If I do want an asking bid to sort out which suit might be better, then I need to open 2S [or lower].

There are a couple cavaets here. The most important revolves arround penalty doubles. If you are playing methods where you are worried about frequent direct seat penalty doubles, then there is a good reason to open 1 step lower [Its possible to develop some interesting scrambling methods]. However, even here, I prefer to open one of my anchor suits an really put pressure on the opponents.

It is interesting to note that this style is starting to become wide spread. For example, many pairs are now using a Multi 2H opening rather than a multi 2D [MUCH more difficult to defend against]. In a similar fashion, the Ekrens 2D opening [preemptive with 4+ Hearts/4+ spades] is being surplanted by an Ekrens type 2H opening.

My own Frellings 2 bids are deliberatelly designed based on this principle.

[Codo]

Hi Antoine,

your opening structure at the two level may work wonderful.
But there is one big problem: It will be forbidden in most parts of the world to some degree. I think the rule at least in Germany is something like: If their are bids with different strains, their must be one anchor suit in any weak strain. The only exception here is the normal Multi 2 Diamond. (SO Wilkosz is forbidden f.e.)
Of course, in team matches you are allow to use this tool.

Some other ideas:
Today, it is modern again to show at least one suit as soon as possible.
Against 2 Heart showing a Weak two in Hearts from your rho, you have excactly one chance to act. Against 2 Diamond multi, you have two.
Same will happen with your 2 Club opening. After a while, the people will get to know good defences against this bid and use the space you give them..

And: Nobody kows your suit(s), not even pd. Sometimes it pays to be quick in the bidding, cause pd can act with a known fit before his lho can act.

Something like 3334 or similar is not the best distribution to raise a preempt.

But like richard said: I erred before and will do so later. Maybe your idea strucks gold. I will be very pleased to hear about your successes.

Kind Regards

Roland

[mishovnbg]

Main purpose of weak 2+ level bids is to be as much destructive for opp as possible. "Clear" bids ( and corresponding hands ) are very good when they come, but they come very rare. Any bid at 2 level take so many bidding space from opp, so that any bid that come OFTEN is good in my opinion like 2DI Wilkosza, 2DI multi, 2CL/DI Ekren... Best bids are when you bid one of your suits directly because they are also more difficulty for penalty dbl. Good continuations here are welcome but not so important, because idea of opening is to be destructive, rare but possible for partner too - not a perfect world ;D.
2CL as multi will be not welcome for all "scientific" pairs who play precision or 2(3) way 1CL opening, because they cant change 2CL to 2DI. For others that still play some kind of strong 2CL or 2DI i think that idea is good, because 2CL or 2DI strong is near same - already too high for normal bidding .

[Antoine Fourrière]

I like the multi with a sane opening (at the two-level, a six-carder or a five-five) and the natural bid with a preempt which still makes sense but is more risky, like Muiderberg, 2H Ekren for the majors, or 2H and 2S in the version of the Moscito which appears on Richard's site.

The same strategy holds true for a 3C or 3D opening which shows 7-10 points with six good cards. So, I prefer 3C for clubs and 2N for the minors to the other way round. (I could accept 2N for diamonds and 3D for the minors. The latter is certainly wild, but 3C for the minors already gives double for a penalty-oriented hand in either minor and 3D for takeout, and 2N isn't more constructive than 3C for a club one-suiter.)

If I want to mix the six-card weak twos and the five-and-five weak two-suiters, it is because responder should have the same reaction in front of either with a fit: bid three with three cards, including a 4333, and four with four cards, except perhaps a 4333. These are LAW-abiding raises.

I agree that the multi gives two bids to LHO, and I would like him/her to wait clarification, which I prefer to come back only partially, and/or at the three level.

(I played that convention at French tournaments in the eighties. It worked quite well. It is true the opponents weren't prepared, but I feel they should defend against it like against 2D multi or 2D Wilkosz. Which they presumably did.)

[dworkin]

Since 2♣ seems too valuable as a minimum opening with clubs, I would now suggest to use 2♦ as either a heart weak two-bid or a Wilkosz type and 2♠ as a spade weak two-bid.


2♦ follow-ups:

2♦ = either a weak two in hearts, 5-9, or a weak Polish two-suiter with at least one major, 7-9 (if N°2 passes, it commits the partnership to the three-level when opener has hearts and a minor)
........Pass = not completely systemic, but should happen sometimes with diamonds or a bust, so that N°2 may not pass entirely safely
........2♥ = less than three hearts, to play opposite a weak two with hearts
................Pass = weak two in hearts
................2♠ = spades and another (opponents have a heart fit, and if you disclose your minor, everyone will know it)
................2N = hearts and clubs
................3♣ = hearts and diamonds
........2♠ = three or more hearts, usually two spades, to play opposite spades and a minor
................Pass = spades and a minor
................2N = weak two in hearts, or hearts and another
........................3♣ = relay
................................3♦ = minimum weak two bid in hearts
................................3♥ = minimum with hearts and spades
................................4♥ = maximum, and/or hearts and a minor
................................3N = maximum weak two bid in hearts
........................3♥ = to play
........................4♥ = to play
........2N = strongish relay
................3♣ = clubs and a major
................3♦ = weak two bid in hearts
........................3♥ = invitational
........................3♠ = asks for shortness
........................3N = to play
........................4♥ = to play
........................4♠ = to play
................3♥ = hearts and diamonds
................3♠ = spades and diamonds
................3N = hearts and spades
........3♣ = to play in something else than spades
................Pass = spades and clubs
................3♦ = spades and diamonds
................3♥ = hearts
................4♥ = hearts with extra distributional values
........3♦ = invitational in hearts and spades. Promises two hearts and three spades.
................3♥ = neg
................3♠ = neg
................3N = pos w/ 5H5m
................4♥ = pos w/ 6H
................4♠ = pos w/ 5S5o
........3♥ = to play 3♥ or (at least) 3♠. Responder may be stuck with two hearts and a two-card (or less) minor. Opener may bid four with extra distribution.
........3♠ = to play 3♠ or 4♥. Opener may bid 4♠ with extra distribution.
........4♥ = to play 4♥ or 4♠.